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IPS 2018 round 11 Athens

02-28-2019, 12:59 AM

At last the box containing the cars arrived safely yesterday.But first things first.
I owe an apology to all entrants as recently things were not running as they should.But the summer (23 july)bushfires when 100 humans lost their lives seem to have affected me more than i initialy realised.Our summer home sustained non critical damage (around 30k euros worth) but most of all, next door neibhors ,13 y.o. boy (that my wife used to take to cinemas and playgrounds as mother was working hard) along with his oncle and grand parents were trapped and burned to death (along with another 22 people) a few meters from the sea as blinded by the smoke they could not see the passage to it.Then i got involved with the citizens coordination commitee (SEKMA) where we tried to convince authorities to do their duties.Just to give you an example against what we had to fight for, the escorts of hospitalised people had to pay for the seat for sitting next to them,we managed get it for free but it required serious efforts.What we could not achieve though was the public health system to cover the costs of special silicone sleeves needed after hospitalisation costing ~1000 euros /pair.Fortunately there have been privateer sponsors who covered the cost
Now there is only a couple of individuals still hospitalised and some issues solved,a light depression treatment and i am back to normal or so i think.
Just to make things more difficult the cars got stuck in Canada for about a month because of Canadian post strike and arrived to Oregon(penultimate round) just before Xmas adding further delays.

As if we had not already enough problems,the box containing the cars landed Greek soil apparently on feb 4 but there has been a fierce exchange of emails with customs as they required an invoice.Finally a certified statement from Monte was the solution but they charged me TVA on postage cost and a clearing fee ,a total of 32 euros which is affordable.
A visual check showed the following damages:
-170 rear tyres rubbing the body
-30 missing 1 exaust
-9 drivers head loose in the box
-64 front body post broken
-33 hood loose in the box
-25 decals scratched
-46 roll bar colour flaked off
-an exaust pipe found loose in the box
My aim is to repair damaged cars and run a shakedown on Nick's track in the next few days and run qualifying before march 7 (that i fly off to London for babysitting duties) so the final round will be raced after march 21 that i return.
Stay tuned

Comment

Based on experience with several other proxy races that have, for one or another (perfectly valid) reasons, run into significant problems/delays, I would agree and suggest that the abbreviated series be called a wrap and scored accordingly. Absolutely no criticism is intended. Accepting the risk of being labeled a blasphemer, there are some things more important than toy cars.

Comment

Thanks Al,the good news is we are racing the last round friday.Things are geting smoother,repairs of our summer home ( main reason for my absence from slot activity) are almost complete and life is returning back to normal.

Comment

Last night we raced the first half of the race,we had not enough hands so we raced the 2 center lanes ,Nick and his son Stavros driving and me marshalling.Some photos from the cars .not all of them as my camera run out of battery,but we will shoot some more tonight that we will race the 2 external lanes
[img]hhttps://i.postimg.cc/7YNhnnDt/CIMG7406.jpg[/img]
[img]hhttps://i.postimg.cc/WzwNSsRq/CIMG7410.jpg[/img]

I know that you are bitting your nails for results but i will give you only the top 3,54,98,60 ,because the downhill section on the outer lanes will make many cars suffer,especially 6 19,21 and 17

But i will give you fastest laps table which is unllikely to change as the lanes we raced are easier